A few weeks ago in Murano, just outside Venice, I spent the day with the glassblowers of Barovier & Toso — a company that has been operating since 1295.
I met with the CEO to understand how a business can endure for more than 700 years. Inside the workshop, surrounded by heat and glass, one of his associates turned to me and said, “Each time a glassblower blows a piece of glass, he blows a piece of his soul into the work.”
That line stuck with me.
In a world driven by speed and scale, Barovier & Toso offers a quiet counterpoint: it may suggest that what endures isn’t always the most efficient or the most optimized — but the most cared for. Outlasting isn’t just a product of strategy, but of devotion — the steady, patient act of putting something meaningful into the world, again and again and again.
